IGLOO Software, a provider of social business software in the cloud, has announced that International Data Corporation (IDC), a global provider of IT market intelligence, advisory services and events, has selected IGLOO to power their customer community.

The online community, called IDC Insights, has quickly become a trusted resource for IT decision-makers seeking information about technology investments. Over 150 IDC industry analysts are contributing members of the community sharing their experience and advice via recurring blog posts.

The next evolution of the site aims to create a true community feel where business and IT professionals may network, share and discuss technology issues. In order to do so, IDC needed to address the limitations of their current platform, namely an inflexible design, limited functionality to facilitate engagement and a heavy reliance on IT for customization.

“The IDC Insights community is quickly becoming a popular forum for IT professionals, achieving 78% growth in new membership this past year,” said Mary Conroy, Director of Marketing, IDC Insights. “With IGLOO, our goal is to take engagement to a whole new level by enabling a more open exchange of knowledge, between practitioners and analysts, around common topics and industry challenges.”

Relying on analyst opinion as well as the guidance of an internal steering committee, IDC conducted significant due diligence to match its business requirements to product functionality and fit. They researched a variety of vendors, exploring the viability of both legacy customer support platforms as well as the top-tier social collaboration vendors. After months of research, IDC selected IGLOO for its ease of use, flexibility in design and the frequency in which new, innovative capabilities are introduced.

“Faster implementation times, automatic upgrades and increased flexibility are all hallmarks of IGLOO’s cloud-based approach,” said Andrew Dixon, Vice President, Marketing and Operations, IGLOO Software. “These principles fundamentally change how we think about software and enable customers, like IDC, to take advantage of the latest innovations in social technology to drive improved productivity and deeper engagement.”